WAR has broken out on the Welsh-English border - over "unfair" water rates.

From April next year, more than 2,000 Englishmen living in Wye Valley villages that flank Offa's Dyke - once the scene of many a fierce Anglo- Celtic battle - are to pay Welsh Water rates, which are nearly triple what they pay now.

Welsh Water only recently discovered it is responsible for treating their sewage as it flows downhill and over the border into Welsh treatment plants along the Wye Valley.

Despite living in the catchment area for Severn Trent, retired chartered surveyor Jim Hewitt, 57, of Tutshill in Gloucestershire, has been told his water bill is to rise from &#xA3;86 a year to &#xA3;196.

He has launched a petition to ask Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett to intervene.

Mr Hewitt's fellow Tutshill resident, retired local government officer John Gower, 80, has been informed his bill will rise from &#xA3;80 to &#xA3;235.

Until Welsh Water carried out a recent review to establish exactly who its customers were, Mr Gower, who has lived in Tutshill for 10 years, had no idea he was piped in to "foreign" water supplies.

Mr Hewitt said, "Geography dictates that our sewage flows downhill into the Welsh system. But because we live in Gloucestershire, it was decided we would pay Severn Trent rates.

"I don't see why we should pick up the bill because Severn Trent has handed over its responsibilities to Welsh Water."

Welsh Water says the problems began in 1989 when the water industry was privatised.

Subsequent inquiries found many Severn Trent customers on the English side of the border were being piped into the Welsh system.

Mr Hewitt says Severn Trent should be in charge of the pipes serving Tutshill but Welsh water argue this would create legal complications.

A Welsh Water spokesman said the difficult terrain at the border meant his company had more sewage works, pipelines and sewers than other suppliers. This, he said, is what made Welsh Water more expensive.

Welsh Water would not be backdating the rates to 1989 as a gesture of goodwill, he said.

In Chepstow, a short walk away from Mr Hewitt's and Mr Gower's homes, residents enjoy the benefits introduced by the Welsh Assembly.

"It's a very sore point," said Mr Gower. "I think they've got a cheek to say we are in Wales when it comes to the higher water rates but not for anything else."

The benefits to pensioners living on the Welsh side of the Dyke include free bus travel and